"the anecdotes of Messalina and Moll Flanders afford nothing more abominable that what we have here perused". Declaring her "greatest abhorrence and detestation" of what was alleged against her, Billington issued libel proceedings but these bore no fruit and the allegations soon reappeared in a publication that suggested other improprieties by Daly "who dies for every lady he brings forward". At the time reports of his alleged adultery with Billington first surfaced in print, Daly was suing her for £250 on a wager made during her engagement for The Beggar's Opera, which he had staged in the previous summer when her celebrity was already so considerable that "at an early hour the avenues to the theatre were crowded in a manner only equalled on Mr Garrick quitting the stage". Although Dublin may have derived temporary titillation from the account of Billington's off-stage activities, by 1805 that account was dismissed as the work of "some needy scribbler" and "justly consigned to oblivion". Later career Absence from performing The Magee case caused Daly such "agitation of his mind as prevented him from attending his business", and neither he nor his wife appeared on the stage between June 1789 and January 1793. During the early part of the Dalys' absence from the stage Margaret Kennedy, Frances Abington, William Thomas Lewis, Charles Incledon, Rosemond Mountain, Frances Hodgkinson, Georgina George and Maria Ann Campion were among those whom Daly engaged, followed by Maria Bland, Elizabeth Farren, Charlotte Wattell, Charlotte Melmoth, Michael Kelly, Anna Maria Crouch, Tryphosa Jane Wallis, Gertrud Elisabeth Mara, John Henry Johnstone, Mary Ann Davenport, Laurence Clinch and Joseph Munden. In order to compete with Astley's presentations, Daly increasingly diversified the Theatre Royal's repertoire, introducing elaborate ballets, pure spectacles (such as "Gallic Freedom", depicting the storming of the Bastille) and a variety of novelty items. Particular interest was captured by the Chevalier d'Eon's display of his or her (the audience was uncertain but fascinated on the point) fencing skills. In some quarters these developments were, like Daly's earlier presentations of "dancing dogs and whistling men", deemed to "trample on the ornaments of drama", and in 1793 a group of wealthy young men leased Robert Owenson's City Theatre and fitted it up to "a degree of elegance hitherto unknown in Ireland". Amateur productions were staged there under the management of the Earl of Westmeath and Frederick Edward Jones and were glowingly reported in the